EMA staff collecting salmon scales

The Ecosystem Monitoring and Assessment Program’s overall goal is to improve and reduce uncertainty in stock assessment models of commercially important fish species through the collection of observations of fish and oceanography. Observations for fish include abundance, size, distribution, diet and energetic status. Oceanographic observations include conductivity-temperature at depth, nutrient levels, and estimates of the composition and biomass of phytoplankton and zooplankton (includes jellyfish) species. These fish and oceanographic observations are used to connect climate change and variability in large marine ecosystems to early marine survival of commercially important fish species in the Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea, and Arctic.

Pacific salmon are an important component of the Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea, and Arctic ecosystems, and are an important commercial and subsistence resource. This is a “crosscutting” activity that utilizes salmon and other data from ongoing fisheries and oceanographic, surface trawl and mid-water acoustic surveys described in Activity Plans from the Southeast Alaska Coastal Monitoring (SECM), Southeastern Bering Sea Assessment, and Gulf of Alaska Assessment to monitor changes in large marine ecosystems of the North Pacific Ocean and to inform Alaska State and Federal Managers on changes in marine salmon growth, health, and abundance in relation to adult salmon returns.

Goals

Develop physical and biological indicators of ecosystem processes and status to help predict subsequent year class strength of salmon and groundfish.

Participate in NPAFC annual meetings, workshops, and symposia to foster international efforts in ocean research pertaining to the North Pacific Ocean, Bering Sea, Gulf of Alaska, and Arctic Ocean.

Participate in Yukon River Joint Technical Committee annual meetings to inform salmon managers and users on the Yukon on changes in ocean conditions and juvenile Yukon River salmon size, fitness, and abundance that affects their marine survival.

Determine age and digitize seasonal and annual marine growth on scales from chum and Chinook salmon collected as bycatch by the Fisheries Monitoring and Assessment division of the AFSC.

Work closely with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and others to collect adult scales from western Alaska and Gulf of Alaska salmon populations to age and digitize the seasonal and annual marine growth on salmon scales where growth data are used to predict stock recruitment of walleye pollock, Pacific cod, and sablefish in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska.

Contact:
Ellen Martinson
Auke Bay Laboratories
Alaska Fisheries Science Center, NOAA Fisheries

Ted Stevens Marine Research Institute
17109 Pt Lena Loop Rd
Juneau AK 99801
(907) 789-6604 Ellen.Martinson@noaa.gov